He Said Forever
by Ali-Chan1
Summary: After finding out that she may not make it to her next birthday, Brooke Davis doesn't want much from life. When handsome, cocky Nathan Scott enters her life she learns it's not the moments you breathe that count, but the moments that take your breath away
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"Brooke, that guy is staring at you again." Brooke Davis doesn't need to glance over her shoulder to know what guy her best friend is talking about. She knows that if she half turns in her seat, she'll catch the gaze of the gorgeous guy with the amazingly blue eyes that has been watching her for the last two days.

"Oh God Peyton, don't make eye contact with him," Brooke moans, nudging her best friend lightly to draw her attention away from the guy and back onto her. "He might decide that it's an invitation to come over and introduce himself."

"Fine with me, maybe when you inform him that you have a boyfriend I can console him." Peyton arches an eyebrow suggestively and offers a devilish grin. "Who knows, maybe he's my prince charming."

"Or maybe, since we are in a hospital and not a country club, he's got some deadly communicable disease and he's looking for someone else to infect before he dies."

"Hey, I thought I was supposed to be the dark, negative one! Besides," Peyton's gaze wanders to just over Brooke's right shoulder, "if he's as good in bed as he looks, I think I'd take that trade."

"Oh my God, you're impossible." Brooke laughed, thankful that Peyton was here with her. Peyton had been there every day to distract her during visiting hours for the two days she'd been committed to the hospital for "testing". Frankly, Brooke was tired of testing. She was tired of being poked and prodded for god-knows-what tests. She wanted answers. She wanted to know why she'd fainted in English two days prior. Mostly, she wanted them to tell her that it was some strange case of anemia and she had to take iron supplements or whatever it was you did to take care of anemia. She just wanted to be able to stop worrying about it.

"Impossible? Not me, you're the one not willing to acknowledge that a gorgeous guy is clearly very interested in you." Peyton shook her head, her blonde curls bouncing with the movement.

"I've already found my knight in shining armor, remember?" Brooke grinned despite the fact that she didn't really remember collapsing in English. All of a sudden the world had gone black, but Peyton had told her that Chris had caught her before she hit the floor.

"Oh yes, where is the oh so charming Chris Keller today?" Peyton and Chris had never gotten along. Peyton said he was a cocky ass and Chris, well Chris said nothing negative because Brooke threatened to castrate him for saying anything awful about her lifelong best friend. In Brooke's own opinion, they were too much alike to get along with one another: the brooding, music-loving, artsy type.

"He took off for spring break today. He stopped by this morning to say goodbye." Leave it up to Brooke to land herself in the hospital on the last day before spring break. "Speaking of..."

"No," Peyton cut her off with a firm shake of her head, "we are not talking about this again. I am not going to run off to go to the beach and leave my best friend behind in the hospital." Brooke was an only child, as was Peyton, and they'd been best friends their entire lives. As a direct result, they were more like sisters than best friends.

"I know we talked about this already, but it's ridiculous you staying here and hanging out with me for the entire break. Besides, my dad's last day in court is today and my mom got someone to cover her at the shop, so needless to say that they are going to be hovering twenty-four-seven. I'm not saying that you'll be in the way, it's just – at least one of us should be having fun on our last spring break of high school."

"Brooke." Peyton frowned, looking doubtful. Peyton Sawyer was a great many things, and her loyalty to Brooke was one of her strongest attributes.

"I'm serious, Peyton. Go, have fun and get a tan for both of us." Brooke offered a dimpled grin. "And take that bikini we bought the last time we went shopping. I can think of a certain hot basketball slash guitar player who would appreciate it. I have it on good authority that a certain Mr. Jagielski will be in attendance on that group trip."

"And you'll come up as soon as they release you, right?"

"If I can convince my parents that I am alive and well, not dying, then of course. I will be there, even if it's only for a day or two." Brooke kept telling herself not to worry, that her parents were worried enough for all of them. That her parents were overreacting. That when she walked out of here, she would walk away with a prescription for something for migraines, and that the headaches and the fainting were totally unrelated. But as the hours ticked by, the longer she stayed and the more tests they gave her, the more her faith that she was fine was deteriorating. "You should go, call Jake. I'm sure he'd be willing to ride out there with you tonight."

"I can hang out for a little while. There's no rush getting out there."

"Of course there's a rush. The kickoff party is tonight and I'd be sorely disappointed in my best friend if she missed the party of the year." Brooke knew it probably felt like she was kicking Peyton out of the door and part of her was. She was tired and she could feel a headache starting just behind her eyes and she'd rather not have to confess that to Peyton, or Peyton would stay and hover. And her parents were doing enough hovering for all of them. "Besides my mom is closing up the shop early today and she was going to bring in food. I'm done with testing so my doctor cleared them for bringing in Yangs for dinner."

Peyton wrapped her arms around Brooke. "You'll call me if you get any of your results? Even if it's a clean bill of health?"

"Of course." Brooke clung tightly to Peyton but eventually released her vice grip. "I love you, P. Sawyer. Don't do anything I wouldn't do." She winked.

"So that rules out, what?"

--------------------

Brooke took long deep breaths, she'd just pushed her parents out the door. Visiting hours were over and her mother had been attempting to make arrangements to spend the night, but with the aid of the nurse on duty they'd convinced her that it would be better for everyone involved if she spent the night at home. And now that they were gone and done hovering, she wasn't as relieved as she'd thought she would be. Alone in the hospital without her mother's chatter about celebrity gossip and her father filling her in on the case he'd just won, she could hear all the noises of the hospital. With visiting hours over, there was no quiet chatter that you could usually hear from people walking past her open door, instead there was the sound of the medicine cart making it's rounds and the squeak of a rubber soled sneaker on the linoleum. But for the most part, it was silent and that scared her more then she'd care to admit. Brooke had never been very good at being alone.

_Stop it Brooke. You're eighteen years old, plenty old enough to spend the night alone in the hospital._ With resolution, Brooke picked up the top magazine from the stack her mother had left on the bedside table, she'd always been a magazine fiend. She had a subscription to every fashion and gossip magazine out there with a couple other random magazines like _Better Homes and Gardens_. Why? She wasn't exactly sure but she loved flipping through home magazines as much as fashion ones.

A knock pulled her out of her analysis of whether the latest starlet had an eating disorder or a drug addiction. Glancing up, she was confronted with the pair of blue eyes that had been locked on her in the rec room when she'd been with Peyton. "Lucky me, it looks like I've won myself a stalker."

He smirked at her and Brooke had to admit that he's, without a doubt, gorgeous and she gets the impression that he's more then well aware of the fact. "I'm Nathan Scott." His voice is deep and almost hoarse sounding as he crosses the room to shake her hand. His grip is firm and slightly rough.

"Brooke Davis."

"I know," he pauses, and then off of her taken aback expression hurries to add, "I asked the nurse."

Brooke's eyes narrow suspiciously. _Who did this guy think he was to walk in here and act like he knew her_? "And you're here because?" She keeps her voice cool, borderline annoyed. It was a tone that had easily put guys off; making it perfectly clear that she wasn't interested in their flirtations.

"I'm here because you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen and I figured we should get to know each other, since you're the girl I intend to marry.

--------------------

A.N. So yes. I've started a new story. Bad Amanda? lol Anyway this entire story is mapped out and I know how it's going to end. Thanks go out to Jess for making me do this, and Elena for holding my hand as I wrote this. And to Christina, Miranda and Maggie for betaing for me! Review please! I'm a review whore. Thanks!! Oh also credit for the idea goes to Lurlene McDaniel's book Til Death Do Us Part.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:**

Brooke wanders through the gardens of the hospital that has been her home for three days now; the gardens that surround the three sides of the hospital were beautiful. They didn't look like they should belong around a hospital, but maybe around a lavish hotel. Maybe that was the point though, so that the patients could walk around the grounds and forget that they were in the hospital. _Fat chance of that_. Brooke was pretty sure that she was incapable of forgetting the words the doctor had uttered to her less than an hour before.

She'd been walking for nearly ten minutes, but the warmth of the sun was doing nothing to rid her of the chill that had settled over her entire body. When she comes across a bench, she takes advantage of it and lowers herself gingerly onto it. Her head is throbbing dully and her throat is closing up with unshed tears. What was it about that lump that always made it harder to resist the urge to cry? There was something about knowing that you were trying to restrain the unshed tears that only made it worse. Burying her face in her hands with her elbows resting on her knees, she allows herself to think over the last hour.

As soon as Doctor Winters walked into her hospital room she'd known it wasn't anemia and that there wasn't going to be a simple fix. Weren't doctors supposed to be able to mask bad news? Didn't they go through some sort of course in college on how to forego expression? If so, then Doctor Winters, a petite, slightly aging, blonde woman must have failed miserably. She'd come into the room, sat down in the vacant chair next to Brooke's bed and explained it all calmly; establishing the plan of attack, how they were going to fight this and how she was going to help Brooke to survive.

As she sat on the cold bench, she willed herself not to cry. Brooke Davis didn't cry. Ever. She was strong. She was beautiful. She was popular. She was the cheer captain and crowned queen at all of the senior year dances. This wasn't supposed to be happening to her. Just a couple of days ago she'd been staging her campaign for prom queen and now she was, what? Staging a campaign for her life? This was all too much like a bad Lifetime movie to her.

"So, I stopped by your room, met the future in-laws. I like them, nice people. They said that you'd gone for a walk."

At this point Brooke recognized the voice, although they'd only actually spoken once. He'd made quite a first impression on her. "I thought I told you yesterday that I didn't want you hanging around and that I had a boyfriend. So could you go find someone else to stalk?"

"You did." Apparently this struck Nathan as an invitation to sit down next to her, but he said nothing further. She didn't bother to look up until Nathan began to cough, but it wasn't a normal cough.

It lasted much longer than Brooke thought any coughing fit should. "I'm going to go get a nurse." With her heart pounding in her chest she jumped to her feet, all of her problems gone from her head. She didn't get very far because he grabbed her hand, his grip surprisingly strong, considering that he was coughing so hard that there was no possible way that he could breathe.

For a breathless few more seconds he continued to cough, but eventually it faded out and he looked up at Brooke, tears in his deep blue eyes. "Sorry you had to see that." His voice was must raspier than it was normally.

"What's wrong with you?" She demanded, but as soon as the words were out of her mouth she had the courtesy to blush. "I'm sorry, I have the tendency to demand answers from any and everyone. It's not my place to go around asking people why they're in the hospital. I mean that's so rude and it's clearly none of my business. I thought you were forward, I mean you proposed to me on sight, but you didn't even ask me why I am in the hospital. Although, maybe you already asked one of your nurse friends who so willingly gave up my name. I'm sorry, I ramble when I'm nervous and being in the hospital and watching you nearly cough up a kidney puts me pretty much off the charts on the stress level."

His face had been drained of most of its color, but his blue eyes sparkled and a smirk pulled at his lips as he says, "I'm glad to hear that I make you nervous."

"Ugh, you're so damn full of yourself." Brooke shook Nathan's grip around her wrist off and began to walk away.

"Okay, okay," Nathan stood quickly and slipped an arm around Brooke's waist "Come sit and we'll talk. I promise I won't hit on you." Gently he steered them both back to the bench that they'd occupied only seconds before. Once they were both seated he took a deep breath. "I have Cystic Fibrosis." He said it like it was saying _"I have a cold"_ and even though Brooke hadn't heard of it before she was pretty sure that anything with the word -_osis_ in it isn't good.

"Cystic Fibrosis, what is that?"

"It's a disease I was born with, that mostly affects the lungs and digestive systems."

Brooke tilted her head gently to the side, attempting to read the expression that's on Nathan's face. Unless he was excellent at hiding his emotions, Brooke didn't find a trace of self-pity written there. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. You get what life hands you. I've lived longer than lots of people with CF do and you just have to live your life." He sounded so serious that Brooke was surprised at the change in him. He'd gone from overconfident and cocky to serious and philosophical. "You can't waste your time crying about the fact that you're sick, because so long as you have two feet on this planet you're alive. And if you're alive you have to live like you're alive, not like you're dying."

"But you are dying." The bitter, nearly tearful words were out of Brooke's mouth before she has any control of them.

"Sure." Nathan nodded. "I have been since the day I was born. But you know what? So has every other single person in the world. People don't think about that aspect. People could walk out of their door one morning and get hit by a bus and never have lived. But it's not until they're handed some sort of awful diagnosis that they actually start to see how important life is and try to make it count for something more then just the same old daily grind. So, Brooke Davis, now that you've been handed some awful life changing diagnosis, the question is what are you going to do with your life to make it count for something?" His deep blue eyes had locked onto hers and Brooke felt uncomfortable with the way he was looking at her. It was as if he could read everything she is thinking just by looking at her.

"So, so what? The nurses around here just don't care about confidentiality? They just go around blabbing every little part of my life? You know that's against the law...there are contracts and something about a Hippo."

"That's HIPAA and no the nurses didn't tell me, but you've just got the look. The one that makes it kind of look like you're slowly drowning. But don't worry. You still look amazing." He winked with this comment but quickly returned back to serious. "What's going on with you?"

"I don't know," Brooke's voice lacked the _I don't want to talk about it_ tone that she had tried to implement. She was too tired and emotionally drained to force any sort of annoyed emotion and something told her that Nathan wouldn't take the hint anyway.

"You don't know?"

"No, really I don't know." Brooke sighs. "The doctor came in and started talking and it was all like..." She lifted her hands and opened and closed them in the universal _blah, blah, blah_ symbol. "She started talking and none of it made sense. Except for the fact there's a tumor and it's on, or in or whatever, my spinal cord and they are going to check to see if they can remove it. And then there was crying...mostly from my mom, but hey, guess what? I get to go home as soon as it's all over. Woo hoo." Brooke twirled her finger in mock enthusiasm. "Isn't my life grand?"

"I think it could be worse." Nathan's voice was serious and it was obvious by the expression on his face that he knew she's not going to receive this news well. "Don't get me wrong, you're upset and you have every right to be. Brain tumors...scary things. But keep it in perspective."

"Don't tell me to keep it in goddamn perspective! I'm sorry that I haven't been dying since the day I was born. I like my life. I have a good life and I live it well. You don't know me! You have no right to come into my life, telling me that my diagnosis could be worse. Because guess what. It never has been. I liked my life and I didn't take it for granted. You can't just waltz up to me, making presumptions about what I did or did not do..."

"Hey, hey, hey, I didn't mean to make you cry." Brooke didn't even realize that she was crying until he commented and gently wrapped his arm around her. "I'm sorry, you're right. I don't know you and I shouldn't have said those things." His voice was warm and comforting so that Brooke couldn't help but bury her face in his shoulder, sobbing. This wasn't her at all. Brooke Davis did a great many things, but crying wasn't one of them. Hell, even Peyton had only seen her cry a handful of times and yet here she was sobbing into a complete stranger and not wanting to pull away.

Nothing made sense anymore, so why should this? She couldn't seem to process anything going on around her anymore. Three days ago she had been admitted after fainting…fainting. People fainted all the time. She'd seen someone faint in her Anatomy class when they had begun to dissect the cat they would be studying for the year. Had she been diagnosed with anything? As far as Brooke knew the only thing fainting had earned the girl was a free pass out of Anatomy and into something like Earth Sciences. So why her? Why when she fainted, right into her boyfriend's arms like some damsel in distress, was she being the one being diagnosed with a brain tumor? She was supposed to graduate from high school in two months. A week ago she had prom and graduation to look forward to and now she had what? Surgeries and treatments instead?

"Brooke?" Both Nathan and Brooke were startled apart by the surprised sound of April Davis' voice.

"Mom," Brooke furiously wiped at the tears that soaked her cheeks. She didn't want her mother to see her cry, she was upset enough for the both of them. While Brooke got her dark locks, eyes and skin tone from her father, it was easy to tell that April and Brooke Davis were mother and daughter. April had auburn hair and green eyes, but there was something eerily similar in the facial features of the two despite the coloring difference. Brooke had always loved being told how similar they looked when she was growing up. But right now she hated that they both wore the same broken and scared expressions. "This is, uh, Nathan Scott."

"Yes, I know." Brooke could tell that her mother was trying so hard to keep her composure and she knew that they were both fighting loosing battles. "He came to your room looking for you. I didn't realize that you and Chris were over. I must say I'm relieved. I never thought he was good for you honey, so arrogant and Nathan seems like such a sweet boy."

Brooke turned away from her mother and back to Nathan. "What did you tell her?" Her eyes narrowed in question and Nathan offered the cocky smirk that had given way for the serious expression. It was back now and his eyes were twinkling with amusement.

"Hey, I didn't tell her anything. I introduced myself and asked where I could find you." Nathan laughed lightly and it only elicited a groan from Brooke.

"Mom, Chris and I are still together, Nathan and I are just friends and friends is pushing it."

"Oh." April frowned, the brief moment of light conversation was gone and everything came crashing right back down on Brooke.

"We should get back to my room." Brooke stood, moving to her mother's side in the process and putting distance in between herself and Nathan. "It was nice seeing you again Nathan." Her own voice startled her as it's nearly void of any form of emotion and that's so un-Brooke. Every part of Brooke was passionate, she always had been. She'd never been mildly emotional, and she can't help but be scared that maybe this thing, this tumor, was already changing her. Making her a different person. Maybe she was already losing pieces of herself.

"I'll be around Brooke."

"Well of course. If you weren't around you'd lose your spot as my number one stalker." Maybe, just maybe the old Brooke wasn't going anywhere.

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A.N. Hey all, sorry this second chapter took so long but I was away for Thanksgiving and then it had to go through my pre-readers and betas. So once again thanks to Elena and Jess who see it before the beta's even know it's finished. And thanks to Miranda, Christina and Maggie for muddling through my mess of tenses and blech whatnot. Also a shout out to Lori and Ella who loved _Because of You_ but are taking a chance and trusting me to actually finish this fic. And thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter it totally made my couple of days as the reviews were rolling in and inspired me to get the chapter out as quick as possible, keep them coming in. And could someone tell me what FTW means, cause I think I'm missing something.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three:**

"_**A change is coming, be prepared,**" Brooke read allowed before popping the last piece of her fortune cookie into her mouth. "I wonder what that means."_

"_You and your fortune cookies Brooke." Peyton laughed. "You always take them so seriously. I thought, no hope that they don't come true." She cleared her throat to read aloud, "__**Be careful not to walk alone after dark**"_

_Brooke arched an eyebrow, "I dunno P. Sawyer. That sounds good to me. It just means you'll have to find someone to walk with you after dark."_

_Peyton rolled her eyes. "Oh, of course."_

* * *

"Of course there are other treatments beyond chemo, right?" Brooke's mother's words pull Brooke from her lapse into a recent memory. Doctor Winters had come into the room only ten minutes earlier. It was the day after the initial bad news and after an MRI they had a new round of bad news. Her parents had been talking to Doctor Winter's as if Brooke wasn't there. Which was just fine with Brooke, she could hardly wrap her head around what they were saying let alone ask questions. Her father, a lawyer for a large corporation, was the type of person who demanded answers from everyone and Doctor Winters was having a hard time keeping up.

"Of course," she assured, "I said the problem with a High-Grade Astrocytoma is that it grows rapidly and is hard to treat, not impossible. What we'll do to start off with is treat Brooke with a strong drug that hopefully will help reduce the swelling and we will follow that with a round of radiation. Then we'll do the surgery to attempt to remove the tumor."

"Why can't you just do the surgery now?" April's voice shook as she asked the question and Brooke is drawn to her mother's tone. She notes the fear in her voice and Brooke is surprised to find that it doesn't mirror her own feelings. She feels numb. Somewhere in the back of her mind something is telling her that she shouldn't feel numb, that they were talking about her possibly dying, and yet, the only thing she can focus on is her mother's fear.

"Because of the location of the tumor." Dr. Winters pointed to the MRI scan she'd set up and points to the mass. Despite her disjointed feeling Brooke can't help but notice that the tumor looks threatening and ominous, a dark mass at the base of her skull. "The tumor is embedded in the cerebellum, near the brain stem. We couldn't take a scalpel in there to attempt to untangle. It could easily maim Brooke for life."

"So when do you suggest she begin the treatment?"

"As soon as possible. Brooke we can get you out of here today." Doctor Winter's gently laid a hand on Brooke's knee, drawing Brooke's blank gaze to her face. "We'll get you started on radiation on Monday."

"Radiation," Brooke echoes the words back to the doctor and it's the first word that Brooke can focus on completely. _Radiation._ She could remember talking about it in health class. Generally she didn't pay attention in health class, but Chris and Peyton had both been absent and she had no choice. The text book had featured pictures of people looking sick and bald. "I'm going to lose my hair." Suddenly the room felt too small and she couldn't breathe. "Oh my god, I'm going to lose my hair and I'm going to look like a freak. Everything is wrong..." Brooke's hand flew to her chest as she desperately sucked in shallow breaths. "I can't breathe. Oh my god."

_Tumor. She had a tumor._

_She was going to die._

_She was only 18, she was too young to die._

_This wasn't supposed to be happening to her._

_She was supposed to graduate._

_She'd been accepted to the design school in New York City._

_She didn't want to die._

"Brooke, darling." Brooke could feel cool hands touching her forehead and her mother's voice sounds far away. "Honey, why don't you wake up now? You have a visitor."

"Mom?" Slowly Brooke opens her eyes, her lids are heavy and the light in her room seems to be too bright and her head is throbbing. "What happened?"

"We'll talk about it a little later, okay?" April's was using her avoidance voice. If her head didn't hurt so much Brooke would have pushed the subject, but she was having problems thinking clearly. "Nathan's here to see you." Brooke's eyes shift to Nathan's form on the other side of her bed as her mother makes her excuses to leave the room.

"Your mom says you're getting out of here today too." Nathan grins and holds out a red balloon hanging off of a yellow string, "I brought you this."

"Wow, thanks, because roses are so understated."

"There's a story behind the red balloon smartass."

"Yes, I know they forced us to watch the movie on rainy days in elementary school when we couldn't play outside. The balloon like follows the little boy around or maybe the little boy follows it around...I'm a bit fuzzy on that part." With a sinking feeling everything comes back to her, her freaking out to the point where she couldn't breathe, a nurse rushing in, Doctor Winters ordering something and then darkness.

"I think the balloon was following the boy, I watched it a couple times when I was little."

"A great lesson in stalking, I'm sure." Brooke's voice is shaky, but she refuses to fall apart again. She wasn't going to be the person who couldn't handle their life. She'd always taken things that life had thrown at her easily, she had to handle this the same way. But despite her mental resolve Brooke's hand shakes and in what she hopes is a nonchalant motion she moves to grip the bed railing. "So what is this? A message that you're going to stalk me forever?"

"Close, but no." Nathan laughs. "It was actually the way, when I was younger, that I would prove that my lungs were strong enough for them to let me out of the hospital." At Brooke's blank look he explained further. "I'd get admitted for an infection in my lungs and I would never be breathing well. They had to make sure that my lungs were strong enough before they'd let me out. Now there's a machine that I blow into but back then if I could blow up a balloon I could go. So I brought this and thought that it might bring you good luck, that maybe you'd get out of here soon too. But I guess you don't need it since you're getting out of here too, but I slipped my number in the balloon. So I guess it wasn't a total waste."

"Oh and there's the boy I know and loathe."

"You know you'll miss me when we leave the hospital." Nathan smirks, but the serious look from the garden the day before replaces the smirk. "If you need to talk..."

"Listen Nate, I know you think you're God's gift to the world, but I do have friends and a family who will support me. I appreciate the offer, but it's not necessary."

"Well, it's there." He doesn't have a snippy comeback or a flirtatious remark. In fact he does nothing, but offer a small smile and slips back out the door.

Brooke watched his retreating back and then glanced at the balloon that he had set on the hospital bed. He'd been a nice distraction when she was stuck in the hospital, but she was pretty sure that there wouldn't come a time when she felt the need to dig out the number hidden inside the red balloon. Yes, her life had changed drastically from the time between her admittance to the hospital and her discharge but she still had her family and her friends – the support system that had surrounded her her entire life. Why go changing everything now?

* * *

**A.N. I'm back. With another chapter. It's been two weeks. I know, I'm sorry. But finals were a looming brick wall in the middle of my writing. Most of the chapter was finished and then finals hit. But they are done, and they are passed, yay! The next chapter is already a page in...so once again thank you to Miranda for beta-ing. She's the sole beta this chapter because I'm in a bad mood and I need reviews to cheer me up! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four:**

"It's good to be going home, isn't it Brookie? I bet you can't wait to sleep in your own bed." April was trying too hard. She knew it, Mark knew it and Brooke knew it.

That didn't stop Brooke from forcing the same reaction, "Yeah, I can't wait to curl up in bed and just sleep. Sleep for an entire night with no nurses coming in to take vitals or whatever." With her mother appeased, for the moment anyway, Brooke goes back to staring out the backseat window as they enter the gated neighborhood she had grown up in.

It was the kind of neighborhood that the wealthy and the well educated flocked to. So that they could hide behind the gates and not be forced to associate with the people who didn't have the money or the degree that they felt you needed to have to be worthy of their time. The houses were sprawling, but on lots that pretty much allowed you to hand a cup of sugar to your neighbor through your kitchen window. As they pass the houses you couldn't help, but notice that in the driveway of every house sat some kind of sports car and a minivan. Also there was possibly some other car, some form of an SUV usually, if teenagers were present in the house. It was the picture of upper-middle class suburbia. It was always something that had brought Brooke comfort. It had always been home to her, but at this moment the sight of the perfectly kept houses that shielded their perfectly kept residents made her feel sick.

As they pull onto her street, for a moment Brooke doesn't see it the way it is now; instead she can imagine the kids running around, back and forth from house to house. Their street had been the street with the most little kids growing up, she and Peyton had ruled the street. They always played what they wanted to do and the ten others followed their lead easily. They'd been a group of twelve until middle school and the first family moved away. Brooke could remember how it felt like the world was going to crash down around them when Felix and Anna had moved. And then by the time high school hit they'd all separated, Brooke and Peyton were a part of the in crowd. Brooke realizes with a start that she doesn't even know anything about the people that had once been her best friends.

Brooke just wished that she could turn her brain off. "Here we are." Brooke had been so lost in her own memories that she did not realize that they'd pulled up in front of the white house that had always been home.

Brooke sucked in several deep breaths before she opens the door. This was hard enough on her parents and she didn't want to make it harder on them by crying or by freaking out again. Her dad's at the door before she can even touch the handle and he gives her a reassuring smile, she could remember a time when that very smile could chase away the monsters under her bed and the ghost that lived in her bathroom sink. "Madam." He holds out his hand to her and Brooke takes it and squeezes it tightly, not letting it go even once she's standing outside of the car.

"Brooke!" The call from the right and the Davis trio turn their gazes onto the boy jogging toward them from his own house.

"Marvin, how good to see you." April greets and Mark nods his own greeting.

"Hi Mouth." Brooke offers a small wave with her free hand. She rarely saw Mouth around anymore. He was just another one of those friends that she had lost somewhere along the way of growing up.

"I heard you were in the hospital, I hope you're okay." His concern for her is written across his face and Brooke can remember a time when he had been her other best friend – her boy best friend as she'd spent her early elementary years introducing him. Then high school had started and he'd taken up with the honors students and Brooke's pretty sure that with the exception of neighborhood parties they hadn't exchanged any form of conversation in at least four years.

"I..." Her expression must give away that she wasn't okay because Mouth's eyes take on a sad look.

"I'm sorry." Mouth frowns. "I was just about to head out. But, I guess, I'll see you around?"

Brooke nods. "Yeah. Sure." So this was how it was going to be now then? People would find out that she wasn't okay and they'd retreat? She can only imagine what would happen when word got around school that she was sick, possibly dying. She knew enough to know that it wasn't going to be pretty. She knew that being at the top of the high school chain, surrounded only by people just like her, and meant that she stood to lose everything.

They briefly watch Mouth head back to the house and slip inside before Mark lets go of Brooke's hand and wraps his arm around her waist. Gratefully Brooke leans into her father, wanting nothing more then to enter through the red front door of her home and take solace in her bedroom.

* * *

"I thought I might find you out here." Brooke slowly opens her eyes. She'd heard the footsteps coming so she's not startled by the appearance of her best friend. Nor is she surprised that Peyton has found her in the woods-like area that the homes of their street backed up to. It was where they had first met when Peyton had moved in with her father, after her father had married Peyton's step-mother Anna. Brooke had only been four and had decided that not only did she not like her new nanny, but that she wanted her to be fired. The best solution had been to hide in the woods until the nanny got frantic and called her parents home. At which point she'd appear, sobbing and her parents would quickly deem the poor nanny not worthy of taking care of their precious child three days a week and would promptly fire her. 

It hadn't worked that way though. Peyton had been pulling a similar stunt. She wasn't happy that they were moving into the house so instead of sitting in front of the TV to watch a movie while her dad and Anna set up her new room, Peyton had gone into hiding. The two girls had been so thrilled at entertainment while they punished their caretakers that they had eventually forgotten that they were angry and had made up some sort of game. Two hours later April and Anna had found them hiding there. Both had been frantic and the police had been called, but by the end of the day three sets of friendships had been formed. Even to this day the Sawyer's and the Davis' got together for dinner at least twice a month and Brooke knew that Anna and Larry probably already knew what was going on and had informed Peyton.

"Hey Friend, you're back early from spring break. Did things not go well with you and Jaglieski?"

"My dad called, said that I should come to see you. He didn't tell me what was wrong. He said I should talk to you."

"Your dad overreacts sometimes. It's a dad thing."

"He's not this time, though, is he Brooke?" Peyton sits down across from Brooke and notices that the area that used to be big enough for them to bring out all of their tea set and dolls and stuffed animals now really only had room for the two of them.

Brooke shakes her head slowly, unable to meet the gaze of her best friend. Slowly she explains to Peyton about the tumor, the treatment and how eventually they are going to try and go in and untangle it. To hopefully remove it so that Brooke could live her life. When Peyton bursts into tears, Brooke wraps her arms around her best friend, holding her tightly as she sobs.

"It'll be okay, I'm going to be okay." The irony of the situation isn't lost on Brooke. That it's she who's comforting Peyton when she was the one who was sick and in needed to be comforted. But it was easier this way, easier to be the one comforting than the one in need desperate need of someone to have the right words to comfort her.

"What can I do," Peyton pulls away eventually and wipes the tears on her cheeks away. "I mean I can give blood or..."

"P. Sawyer, that's sweet, really. But I'm not really in need of blood. You don't have to do anything different, okay? I don't want anything to change." She doesn't comment that she knows everything will change, but she can't help but think back on that last fortune cookie. The fortune cookie pinned to her bulletin board. _A change is coming, be prepared._ The fortune had excited her just over a week ago. Then she'd been thinking about nothing but spring break and prom, excited for a change in her daily routine. "I need a distraction, please, distract me."

Peyton doesn't even stop to think, this had always been their thing. When Brooke didn't want to deal with something she'd beg for a distraction, anything to stop her from thinking about what was on hand. That had always been the difference between the two of them, Brooke ignored things and Peyton faced them head on. "Jake and I may or may not have kicked Tim out of their room and spent the night together."

"I so knew it!" Brooke squeals, her troubles not forgotten, but the words no longer hanging painfully in the air.

**A.N. Hey it's another chapter!! I hope this one was worth the wait! I dunno when the next chapter will be coming up what with the holiday's and what not but I will try to get it up as soon as possible. Once again thank you to Christina and Miranda for beta-ing for me! Please review, I live for them!**


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five:

"Where's Chris taking you to dinner?" Peyton was sitting on Brooke's bed, watching her best friend flutter around her bedroom looking for a pair of earrings that she hadn't touched in months. It was a pair that Chris had given her for some occasion or another and she hadn't had the heart to tell him that she preferred white gold over yellow. She was nervous and Peyton was consequently nervous for her.

"The country club, I guess." Brooke shrugs. She was sure that he had mentioned where they were going when he'd called the night before, but she hadn't been feeling well and she couldn't really remember the specifics. Spring break was finally over and Chris had called promptly upon arriving home to set up a date. He hadn't asked about Brooke's health, but she just assumed that he was waiting until they were face to face to do it.

"There's an original thought. Has he ever taken you anywhere other then the country club?" Peyton rolls her eyes, she'd been like Brooke's shadow for the last three days since she'd gotten home. Brooke wasn't sure if it was for her benefit or Peyton's, but she was pretty sure that while she loved her best friend she needed some space.

"Pey, please." Brooke let out a frustrated sigh before flopping onto the bed beside Peyton. "I give up on the earrings."

"What are you going to tell him?" The first day after finding out that Brooke was sick Peyton had ignored the obvious questions, refusing to ask Brooke anything about her health. But now instead of letting the questions hang uncomfortably in the air, she flat out asked them. Which was only slightly more comfortable then not asking them, but right now Brooke would take any amount of less discomfort. She'd already started taking the pills to reduce the swelling and they pretty much left her constantly feeling nauseous. Not to mention that being in her house was like walking around on egg shells because her parents didn't know what to say to her and she in return had no idea what to say to them.

"The truth, I guess. I mean, it's not like I can lie to him. I mean it's going to get around school pretty quickly I'm sure. You know how these things are. People just find out. Besides the doctor says that I might not lose all of my hair, but even if I don't there are other physical side effects. There's no use lying about it."

Peyton slips her hand into Brooke's. "Do you want me to take you tomorrow?"

Brooke squeezes Peyton's hand tightly. "Mom's taking me, but if I'm feeling up to it why don't we organize a Sawyer/Davis dinner for afterwards?"

"Sounds good, I'll have my mom put it all together." With that the two best friends lay next to each other in silence, shoulders just barely touching and their hands clasped between them. Both faces are turned upward so that they can't see each other's tears. "You're going to be okay Brooke. Really, you are." Peyton can't bring herself to say the unspoken words between them: because you have to be.

* * *

"Oh."

Brooke wasn't sure what she was expecting as a response as she was tearfully explaining to her boyfriend that she had a brain tumor. She hadn't expected tearful theatrics like she'd gotten from Peyton and her mother, but maybe a restrained pain like she'd seen on her father's face. But instead the "oh" look on Chris's face was one of almost horror and disgust, instead of pity or sympathy.

Brooke's thankful now that he hadn't asked her while they were at the country club for dinner. She had just assumed that he hadn't asked because he was afraid of what the answer would be. Hell, she hadn't even been able to work up the nerve to bring it up in the conversation so she couldn't fault him for not being able to do it either. This wasn't anything she had expected though. Chris had always treated her fairly well – sure he was self absorbed and pretty much close-minded to anything that didn't have to do with him, but since they had been dating she did have to do with him. Now she saw what Peyton couldn't stand about him. He was just some shallow idiot.

"I should get inside. My parents will probably come out on the porch or something if I don't come in..." She lets the sentence trail, begging him to think up something more appropriate to say. Something to make her feel bad for doubting him.

"Yeah you probably should." Chris gives a minor nod in response and Brooke wishes she could believe that he's acting like this because he's in some sort of shock. "I'll see you in school tomorrow or something." The look on his face tells her that it's not shock and Chris Keller really just is that shallow. She knows by the look on his face that she may see him from a distance in the hall at school, but he won't be acknowledging her existence. She would become his ex-girlfriend that he'd dumped because...well he'd think up some fabulous reason before he gave the real one.

And as Brooke stalks up to her front door she doesn't turn around to watch him drive away. She won't give him the satisfaction that of mourning the loss of their relationship. On the list of things that was going wrong in her life he was hardly a blip. Besides Peyton would probably kick is ass on tomorrow at school anyways.

* * *

Brooke felt surprisingly okay. She was exhausted, but she was pretty sure that was mostly due to how worked up she'd gotten by the time it came for her to go in for her first round of radiation. The day had been long already, she'd had to step down as cheerleading captain and student body senior class president. She'd done so without giving an explanation, but that coupled with the fact that it was obvious that she and Chris Keller had broken up lead to plenty of rumors flying around the small private school.

But the day was for the most part over and now she sat as the passenger in her mother's car on the way home from her first round of radiation. It hadn't been fun by any stretch of the imagination, but it hadn't been as bad as she'd thought it would be either. "Why don't you call Anna?" Brooke asked. "I told Peyton we'd do a dinner if I was feeling up to it."

"Are you sure you're feeling up to it?" April gives her daughter a concerned once over. "No one would blame you if you aren't feeling up to doing something tonight."

"I feel fine. I mean I have a headache, but headaches and I are old friends at this point. But we can keep it quiet. Why don't you have Daddy bring food home and we'll just have them over?"

"Brooke I'm not sure it's a great idea."

"Mom! Seriously! Okay, just lay off. Just invite the Sawyers over for dinner, okay?"

April looks stricken, afraid to overexcite her daughter so she just nods. "Alright Brooke. I'll call your dad and Anna to set it up. But why don't you just rest for awhile before hand?"

"Fine."

"You know I'm just worried about you Brookie."

"I know Mom." The tone of April's voice is one that Brooke's familiar with. It's a tone that indicates that she would like to start a serious conversation. But Brooke can't handle it right now, can't handle listening to her mother tell her all about how worried both she and her father were about her. So she should let them coddle her. So instead of looking at her mother and allowing her the chance to converse Brooke turns her gaze outside of the car, shielding her mother from the tears that had slipped down her cheeks.

* * *

"Brooke what do you know about this Jake kid? Should I be waiting on the front porch with my rifle?"

Brooke could vaguely recognize that she was being addressed, but her mind is elsewhere. She wanted so much for this to be a typical Davis/Sawyer dinner, but everyone was trying too hard. Hell, she'd actually just listened as her father told some story about work. She and Peyton very rarely even pretend to listen when it came to dull work stories.

"Brooke, sweetie." April places her hand over her daughter's in an attempt to catch her attention. "Are you feeling okay? Maybe you should go upstairs and lay down. We can always reschedule dinner when you're feeling a little better."

"I'm fine," Brooke responds quickly, coming out of thoughts. "Really."

"Maybe we should get going home." Anna glances from April to Larry, half rising in her seat.

"No. Sit." Brooke jumps to her own feet and ignores the dizzying rush of blood at the sudden movement. "I'm fine. I need all of you to stop babying me. See I'm fine!" Despite the fact that she feels like she should grab onto something to steady herself Brooke begins to act out an animated tap dance that she and Peyton had learned when they were like twelve. But with a sob she hits her knees, unable to support herself.

She can't bring herself to look at everyone as they rush to her side, too afraid that they'll see just how scared she is. It's Larry though who scoops her into his arms, Larry who had watched his wife die of breast cancer. The only one in the group who had any first hand experience with this sort of thing. So it was Larry who carried her up to her room, with everyone closely following up the stairs. She pretends to be asleep as someone pulls back the covers and Larry gently settles her on her bed.

It's her mother's cool hand that gently brushes her forehead before the five of them file silently out of her room. They're only silent for so long though, as soon as her bedroom door clicks shut the whispered debate starts.

"You have to stop babying her." It's Larry's voice that comes through first and Brooke isn't really surprised. The two families had been so close for so long that it wasn't a rare occurrence for them to cross meddle in their lives.

"Stop babying her? She's sick Larry, I thought you of all people would understand that." Brooke can tell that her mother is crying and pulls the blanket tightly around her. She's freezing and she wishes they would just walk away from her door. They can have this debate anywhere. Why does it have to be right outside of her door?

"I think he might be right April." Brooke can almost see her father wrapping an arm around her mother's shoulders as he delivers the words he knows his wife doesn't want to hear.

"What am I supposed to do? Pretend that my daughter doesn't have a tumor on her brain? That I didn't just take her to her first day of treatment in which they shot radiation into her brain?"

"No of course not..." Larry doesn't go any further, because it's Brooke's best friend, the one person who knows her better than anyone, who breaks in.

"This is Brooke, remember? The girl who, when we were seven, decided that we were grown up enough to move out? Remember how she begged you to get us an apartment down the street from school? And when you told her no she marched into my bedroom with a bag packed and decided that we were running away? She even managed to convince a taxi to take us a hotel. We snuck into a hotel room and stayed there the entire afternoon. It was me who got scared we'd get caught and called you guys to come get us."

"Peyton..."

"April, I know you're scared for her. She's my best friend and I'm scared for her too. But she's still Brooke and she's scared, but she'd never ever admit that. She needs her space to figure all of this out."

Brooke can't stand to listen to anymore of this. Can't stand to listen to them talk about her, discuss how best to take care of her. Quietly she slips out of her bed, quietly thanking her mother for insisting on the thick carpeting when they'd redone her room. She stops by her desk, pushing past a couple of pieces of paper until she finds what she's looking for. With that secured in her grasp she finishes the walk across her room and slips into her walk-in closet. Fishing her cell phone out of her pocket Brooke flips the light switch and then situates herself in the furthest corner.

Within seconds she's dug the slip of paper out of the red balloon and has dialed the number that's printed on the slip. She needs to talk to someone who understands how she's feeling. She needs to talk to someone who's less sympathetic and more empathetic. Who won't hover, but will listen because they understand that she just needs to talk.

The phone rings twice before it's picked up. "Hello?" The voice on the other end sounds breathless, but it's clearly Nathan.

"Nathan, it's uh Brooke...from the..."

"I know who you are," Nathan cuts her off and she can hear the smirk in his voice. "I knew you'd call."

* * *

**A.N. I'm back. I know, it's been over a month since I updated but this chapter gave me a really hard time but it was worth it. I hope you all are able to understand where Brooke is coming from. I know you guys are frustrated that there wasn't much Brathan in this chapter but you should know that it's going to be all Brathan all the time in the coming chapters so two chapters sans Brathan will totally be made up for. Thanks to Ella who told me that if I didn't like it then re-write it, and it came out all the better for it. And Christina and Miranda who worked with it when it was in an awful pieced together state. And just general shout-outs to Jess, who didn't die on me, and Maggie because she is coming to see The Fray with me in April! Also please review guys, I really want to know what you think and my review count has been going down...**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

"They spent years trying to conceive and my mom almost died when I was born, so I'm it. They always told me that they had one perfect daughter, why did they need another?" An hour and a half ago when Brooke had originally sat down in the middle of an intimate coffee shop with Nathan early Sunday afternoon she never would have thought that she'd be essentially telling him her life story; but in that time she had spilled exactly how scared and alone she felt and he just seemed to get it, actively listening and commenting relating to her situation without coming of as all knowing and pompous.

"That must have sucked growing up with no one around."

"You know, not really. We live in this neighborhood with lots of kids, and my parents worked a lot but my mom owns a little boutique so I could go to work with her whenever I wanted. And then there was Peyton and her family..."

"The best friend."

Brooke nods, "she's an only child too so growing up we were like sisters." A silence falls over the both of them and Brooke's surprised to note that there's nothing awkward about it. "But tell me about you, we've talked about me the entire time. You must have a family right?"

"I do," Nathan nods but follows the response with nothing else.

"Come on, tell me about them. This isn't like a therapy session, where I dump all of my problems on you. Besides it's not fair that you know so much about me, and I know nothing about you. Let's see," Brooke taps her finger to her lips, "you're not an only child. That much is obvious, because you've let me go on and on about myself, and no only child can do that."

Nathan laughs, "You're right. I've got your average working class family. My dad and uncle own a car dealership and garage and coaches basketball at the local high school. My mom owns her own cage, but it's in walking distance of our house so she was around to hover over all of us all the time."

"All of us, there's a lot of you?"

"I'm the third of four."

"Four? Must have been an interesting house to grow up in. I'd love to know about them."

Nathan pauses for a moment, long enough for Brooke to think that he's not going to respond at all. "Rachel's the oldest, she's 26 but she'd kill me for tell you she's anything older then 22. She's loud and bossy and a total pain in the ass, and she's also the mother of my mom's only granddaughter and pregnant with another one, so she's pretty much the center of my mother's world." The look on Nathan's face makes it obvious just how close he is to his family. "Gigi is the baby of the family, she's sixteen and a bit...different," Nathan laughs. "She'll say exactly what she's thinking the moment she's thinking it; she's completely tactless but in such an innocent way that she just seems to get away with saying whatever."

"I'm sure being the baby of the family probably helps too. So Rachel and Gigi, plus you. That's three."

Nathan nods and when he begins to speak again his voice is less light and carefree then it had been before. "I had an older brother, Lucas. He was two years older then me."

"Was?"

"Just drop it Brooke," Nathan snaps and the tone catches Brooke off guard, she'd seen lots of sides of Nathan's but this didn't come anyway near anyway she'd seem him act before. His bright blues eyes have clouded over and they are looking everywhere but at her, as opposed to the penetrating gaze he normally has locked on her.

"God, Nathan, sorry." Brooke can't really help it, she knows that sometimes she pushes people too hard, and it causes them to go on defense. Which pretty much always leads to her getting angry and defensive as well, it was a character flaw without a doubt but one that Brooke had never been able to rid herself of. "I should go." Brooke stands quickly, suddenly questioning why she was even here in the first place. She had her own life, people who loved her and would let her unload everything she was feeling on them, what did she need Nathan Scott for?

"Brooke," Nathan follows the motion and immediately he's blocking her path to the door, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap. I just...I don't talk about my brother. I don't want you to leave here angry..." His blue eyes are locked right back on her and Brooke's beginning to realize that her downfall is in that gaze.

"It's not your fault, I push too hard. But I should go, it's getting close to dinner and I've kept you here long enough." She fumbles for her purse and keys which had been long ago discarded on the table that they'd been sitting at.

"Let me take you to dinner," Nathan quickly suggests, "let me make this up to you, so you don't think I'm a complete jerk."

"I..." Brooke trails, she really wants to say no, but there's that part of her, the one that couldn't get Nathan out of her head, the one that wants to say yes.

"I won't take no for the answer," Nathan smirks at Brooke, and it's the smirk that does her in. She's positive that there's no way that he can know the effect that his smirk has on her; the way that it's completely maddening and endearing at the same time. But she knows that he's more then well aware that it's the smirk that's got her to agree to dinner.

* * *

"Hell no. Hell no. If I could say hell no in a thousand different languages it still wouldn't be enough to express how much I am so not walking in that door." Brooke stood with her arms crossed and her feet placed solidly on the ground glancing up at the simple, slightly older, colonial style house. She'd been suspicious when Nathan had begun driving through an older development but had assumed they were going out to eat in a restaurant located in the development, not in a house.

"You said you'd have dinner with me," the mischievous tone in Nathan's voice makes Brooke want to smack him upside the head, and hard.

"I said I would have dinner with you; not you and your entire family there is a huge difference. Is this why you insisted that I drive with you so I could flee in terror? Because that's not fair Nathan Scott," Brooke's hands come to rest in fists on her hips, "that's just not fair. I am not having dinner with your family. So you better get your ass back into that car and drive me back to the coffee shop so I can go home and never speak to you again."

"They're expecting me," Nathan points out, "if I take you all the way back to the coffee shop and come back I'll be an hour late for dinner."

"Then I guess that'll be more dashed expectations to add to your list. You don't just go around tricking people into having dinner with your family, especially girls. Girls who you are on very thin ice with. Remember? How this was supposed to be making up for you being a total ass and biting my head off?" So maybe that wasn't one hundred percent true because she did feel bad for pushing him into biting her head off, but for all intents and purposes the point right now was to make him feel guilty enough to leave before they were detected.

"Fine." And it worked, Brooke grins in triumph.

"Uncle Nathan!!" Or not. Brooke stares in shock at the little girl who comes flying out the from door and directly toward the both of them. Her faith in her uncle is obvious as she launches herself off the top step and into his waiting arms, Brooke can't help notice that Nathan stumbles slightly under the weight before he twirls her around.

"Savannah Georgia Scott-Lee, how's my girl?"

"Good, Mommy's being a hormonal bitch." Brooke's shocked to hear the words come out of the little girls mouth, she can't be more then three or four-years-old and with a mass of long soft curls she's the picture of pre-school innocence.

Nathan chuckles though, "where did you hear that?"

"Daddy told Mommy. Mommy told Daddy that he did this to her so she could be as much of a hormonal bitch as she wanted." Savannah nods smartly as if to further prove her point.

"I see," Nathan tries to smother the smile that is still playing at the corner of his lips, "don't let Grandma Karen hear you talking like that again, okay? We all got lectured for your mouth last time."

She offers him a bright grin but there's no missing the fact that she's not denying anything. "Who are you?" Her full attention is now locked onto Brooke and for the first time she gets a clear look at the blue eyes that must run in the Scott family.

"I'm Brooke."

"Oooh," the girls mouth forms a small "o" and her eyes go wide, "Uncle Nate-y said you were pretty."

Brooke takes a step closer to both Nathan and Savannah. It was strange to say but she'd never really been exposed to kids. Obviously as a child she had, but since her neighborhood had always been full of kids her age there had never been anyone younger then her around, and all of her parent's friends had kids older then here. To be honest, she was slightly afraid of children. "Did he?"

"Mhhm," she nods, "he said you were the most buuuuutifullllest thing ever!"

"Savannah? Where'd you disappear to?" The instant the voice comes filtering out of the open front door Brooke freezes in her tracks. _Oh shit. _She's not sure who the voice belongs to but she's pretty sure she has now officially lost any chance of retreating, of getting out of this dinner.

A.N. I know it's been awhile since I updated. School's been stressful and this chapter was a pain in the ass to write, which is ironic since the entire thing was planned out. All my thanks (and yours should as well) got to Miranda who read it over and told me exactly why it wasn't fitting...you can also blame her for the reason why Nathan doesn't reveal about Lucas. Huge thanks go to both her and Christina, as usual, for the baby-sitting that comes with being my beta. Also thanks to Ella for being my handholder always, lol, when it comes to writing. And I'm going to do something I never do. please, please check out my new Bake fic Every Long Lost Dream. It's my other baby, and it's not going to be a long fic and I really want to know what you guys thinks! Anyway hopefully I can get a new chapter out sooner rather then later!


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

"I'm right here Grandma!" Savannah's entire demeanor changed at the voice and if Brooke hadn't been so terrified at having to face Nathan's mother she probably would have laughed at the way Savannah obviously knew to manipulate people to get her own way. "Grandma, Nathan brought a girl!"

Brooke's eyes lock on the woman who has appeared in the open doorway. She's a petite brunette with her hair pulled back into a slightly sloppy ponytail and a dirty apron wrapped around her waist. Through all of this, though, it's obvious that she's beautiful. She's got a smile spread across her face as she comes down the steps to great them, "You must be Brooke. I'm Karen, Nathan's mom." She wraps her arms warmly around Brooke, and Brooke's surprised to find herself returning the hug. "I'm so glad you could come to dinner, Nathan didn't think you'd be able to make it. Come in, come in." She's pulls away to hug and kiss her son, who stands a full head taller then her.

Savannah grabs Brooke's hand and dragged her to the front door, but for the first time since Brooke got out of the car she didn't resist. The instant she steps through the door though all of Brooke's senses are overwhelmed, the air is heavy with the mixed scent of tomato sauce and something sweet and just off toward the right the sound of the TV is blaring. "Mommy! Mommy!" Brooke finds herself being dragged toward the sound by Savannah and before she can react she finds herself in the middle of the living room with six pairs of eyes no longer glued on the TV but onto her.

Karen's standing right beside her with a hand placed gently on her shoulder, "Everyone, this is Brooke, Nathan's friend." Within moments Brooke's being introduced to Nathan's entire family. Nathan's beautiful red headed older sister with just barely a stomach bump to give away the pregnancy that Savannah had spoken of earlier. Beside her was her fiancée Cooper Lee, who Brooke would have to under-exaggerate to deem gorgeous. Gigi, Brooke notes with amusement, could easily be a younger teenaged version of Karen and while her first reaction had been that Nathan looked just like his mother it's obvious that he actually took more after his father who had hugged Brooke just as Karen had. Dan's brother Keith and wife Jules is present as well.

Brooke's parents had always been friendly people but she was so shocked at how open and welcoming the Scotts are.

"Alright, dinner's nearly ready," Karen states as soon as the introductions are finished.

"Mom, the game is almost over. Five minutes okay?" Once the introductions had finished the family had turned their attention back to the basketball game, "Carolina's about to beat Duke."

Karen nods and walks way muttering something about being glad when March madness was over. Her words, however, are drowned out by the entire room erupting into words of annoyance at something that's happened in the game. Brooke had been a cheerleader so she knew that someone had been fouled but she doesn't know anything about college basketball. Nathan's already wrapped up in the game so Brooke decides to wander toward the direction that Karen had left in figuring she could at least offer to set the table.

She's quickly distracted though by the pictures hanging on the walls, they're a range of ages and events in the Scott family. She smiles at the picture of a young Dan and Karen on their wedding day right next to one that Brooke can only guess must be their senior prom both with royalty crowns on their heads. "That picture was taken a long time ago," Karen's voice sounds amused as she comes to stand beside Brooke in the hallway, "don't even ask me how long ago it was taken."

"You guys were high school sweethearts? That's so sweet."

"Dan and I have been together since we were Gigi's age and we had Rachel when we were just a little bit older then you."

"That's so cute," Brooke's eyes travel the wall, "you've got a really great family."

"They're a lot to handle at once."

"That they are," Brooke laughs as her eyes settle on a picture of a smiling blond boy. He couldn't be more then 15 or 16 and he wears a blue and white basketball jersey with a basketball under one arm and a trophy in the other. "Your other son?" Brooke offers the question quietly, soft enough that if Karen wants to pretend she hasn't heard the question that it's feasible.

"Lucas," Karen nods, "he was two years older then Nathan."

Brooke nods, "Nathan mentioned him, earlier, when we were talking about our families."

Karen looks more than surprised at this, "He told you about Lucas?"

Brooke shook her head, "Not really. He mentioned that he had a brother once but he didn't say anything other then that. I think I pushed him too hard and he flipped out...I have a tendency of pushing people to hard. It's part of my nature; I've always been like that. My mom says that it's because I'm an only child." Brooke bites her lip, she was rambling and Karen's expression gives away her amusement. "I didn't mean to upset him or anything..."

Karen gently pats Brooke's arm, "He reacts like that whenever Luke is brought up, and it's not your fault. Now this," Karen takes a couple mini steps down the hall, "this is the picture that Nathan hates that I have out on display, so of course that's the reason it's here."

Brooke's gaze follows to where Karen is gesturing and she laughs at the picture hanging there. It's taken at an odd angle, like the person taking the picture didn't have a good grip on the camera, and it's of who Brooke can only guess to be a toddler Nathan and Lucas. Both boys are stripped down to absolutely nothing but mud is covering their faces, arms and legs. Lucas is mugging for the camera but Nathan's pointing to something off screen and his tears are mixing with the mud as they run down his cheek. Brooke giggles, "That's awesome."

"Mom, please tell me you're not showing off all of the embarrassing pictures on the wall of shame." Nathan leads the group into the hallway and grins at Brooke, "Whatever she's told you about me, it's all a lie."

"I'm sure it is," Brooke flashes a dimpled grin at him, "who won?"

"Carolina kicked Duke's ass!"

"Savannah Georgia!" Karen scolds as soon as the words are out of the little girl's mouth, but instead of her glare being focused on the little girl it's instead focused on the adults standing behind her.

"Savannah, you've got a very pretty name," Brooke states in an attempt to break the awkward silence that had settled over the family.

"That's a place." Savannah declared with pride.

"I know," Brooke nods, "I've been there once with my mom."

"So have Mommy and Daddy. That's where they made me."

"As you can see Brooke," Dan swoops the little girl into his arms, "we've got a little firecracker in this family. But really, she's nothing in comparison to her mother, or her grandmother for that. Karen just wouldn't admit it," Dan offers Karen a good natured wink, "Dinner ready?"

* * *

"Nathan Scott! I can't believe you tricked this poor girl into coming home to dinner with you. I told you to invite her not hold her hostage." Karen scolds but she can't hide her laughter. Dinner was halfway through and Brooke's fairly certain that the entire family had not stopped talking the entire time. She'd learned a lot about them along with the fact that they had dinner every Sunday night.

"How else do you think Nathan got a girl to come home with him?" Rachel taunts, sticking her tongue out at Nathan from across the table. "Oh! You should come with us to the race this weekend Brooke."

The instant the words are out of Rachel's mouth it's like a flip has been switched in the dining room. No longer is the mood light and airy but the tension in the room is almost tangible and every single person at the table looks uncomfortable, even Savannah. Brooke's not sure what's going on, but she can tell that the source of the sudden tension is with Karen and whatever race Rachel had been talking about.

"You're racing this weekend?" Karen's words are quiet, but any of the light heartened-ness that had been there since Brooke walked in the door is gone.

"Mom," Nathan shifts uncomfortably in his seat, looking like a child that's been caught stealing or doing something awful.

"Nathan!" Karen's face has flushed red and she looks on the verge of tears and Brooke is still as lost as ever.

"Mom, please, not now." Nathan begs, his blue eyes flicking between Karen and Brooke in a silent plea that she doesn't embarrass him in front of company.

"I will do this right now. You just got out of the hospital Nathan, you have absolutely no business racing that damn car this weekend."

"Karen, I don't think now is the time to discuss this." Dan interrupts quietly but Karen's already jumped to her feet.

"No, I think now is the perfect time to discuss this. None of you ever want to discuss this and I've kept my mouth shut. But not anymore, I'm not going to sit back and watch all of you risk his life for some ridiculous sport all of you enjoy. Dan, dammit when are you going to stop trying to relive your glory days through your sons? And Nathan, d-dammit," Karen falters as she fights back tears, "Why must risk your health even more? Do you ever think about me? How hard it is to know that you're out risking your life, for what, an adrenaline rush? One of these days you're going to kill yourself..."

"That's it," with a scrap of his chair Nathan pushes back from the table hard, causing most of the plates on the table to clatter and some of the fuller drinks to slosh. "I'm out of here. I'm not having this fight with you again." And without even a backwards glance at Brooke he's left the room and slammed the front door behind him.

Brooke's face his tinted with pink, she still doesn't exactly understand what has just happened. "I'm – I'm sorry. Thanks for dinner."

"Sorry you had to be witness to a Scott family blow-out," Keith, who had been sitting next to her, said. "It was great to meet you."

Half of the family utters halfhearted comments along the same line, but Brooke has grabbed her purse and hurried out the door before anything else could really be said.

"Nathan!" He's already got the car running by the time Brooke hits the steps and he pulls squealing out of the driveway as soon as she's closed the door behind her. "What the hell was that?"

* * *

**A.N. Hey everyone! I know it's been a while since I updated, and that I suck for taking so long. But freaking school got in the way, if I thought it was lucrative enough I would so give up the whole culinary school thing and just write fan fiction all day. But I'm fairly certain that chefs get paid a tad bit more then fan fiction writers so I had to take the finals I was presented with. I just took the last one, and even though I am taking summer school my schedule will be far less busy this summer so hopefully these chapters will get out fast. But Thalia and Ella convinced me to start the Naley that's been floating around in my head, and my Bake is still around but more time equals more writing time. Plus I've got a plane trip coming up and those are always awesome for writing! This chapter goes out to Ella who is not only my hand holder when it comes to writing but my sanity in life and now also my beta! Thanks to Christina for betaing as well, since I pretty much demand that when its ready it must be beta'd at that moment because I have the patience of a two-year-old. Anyway keep reviewing, and a special shout out to -Dukeforever- for getting my ass moving on this chapter ( I can forget your a Duke fan and everything! ;) )**


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

"Where the hell are we?" Brooke glances at the surroundings around her. They were at some deserted air field or something, and the instant Nathan had thrown the car into park, he'd bolted. "I um, realize that your parents pissed you off, but if you're bringing me here to kill me or something..." She attempts to pass it off as a joke but Nathan looks angry enough that she doesn't know what to expect from him.

"I'm sorry you had to see that," Nathan's words come out forced. It's obvious that he's trying not to snap at her but there's a fine line.

"What exactly happened?"

"Dad and Uncle Keith own that auto shop, family business, you know. Cooper and I both work there, but on the weekends we also race cars sponsored by Scott Brothers Automotive."

"Well, God, no wonder your mom freaked out." Brooke had to admit that maybe those weren't the right words to have come out of her mouth but they're out before she can stop them, as are the words that followed. "I mean, Nathan you've got a life threatening illness that makes it hard enough for you to breathe without being exposed to all of those racing fumes and stuff. And I mean what if you crashed?" Brooke's shocked to find that she's actually worried that he would crash, that he could possibly hurt himself. She'd only known the guy for about a week and he'd managed to get fully and completely under her skin. "You could kill yourself."

"It's my choice to make," Brooke shrieks slightly when he grabs both of her shoulders so that she faces him completely. His blue eyes are flashing dangerously and Brooke's heart pounds, "My choice, my life. I thought you of all people would understand that Brooke."

And she did. With shockingly realization she knew exactly what he was talking about. He hadn't asked to be born with a life threatening illness. She hadn't asked to have a brain tumor. And they had no choice about their forms of treatment. It was either take the medicine or die. They're lives were completely mapped out by people who knew how to keep them alive and it left little room for any choices, for anything to control. How could she fault him for something he'd found to help him? He found something that he could control and since the doctor had walked into the room with the news that she had an inoperable brain tumor she'd been scrambling to find something that would give her the same feeling.

No sooner then the sob escaped her lips Nathan had released her shoulders and pulled her to him in a crushing hug. She buries her face in his shirt and he gently runs his fingers through her hair,

"I'm so sorry, Brooke," he murmurs softly as she gently lifts her chin so that her tear filled eyes are locked onto his. He moves slowly, giving her time to move away, to put plenty of distance in between them but she doesn't. His lips just barely brush hers, but there's enough chemistry there to leave both wanting more.

Nathan places a light kiss on Brooke's forehead before pulling away enough to look down at her, "I want you to do something for me."

"Alright, Stalker Boy," Brooke teases using a free hand to brush away the tears on her cheeks, "Don't get all dirty on me."

Nathan rolls his eyes, "Just get in the driver's seat smart ass." With a hand placed lightly on Brooke's lower back he guides her to the driver's side.

"Where to sir?" Brooke tips an imaginary cap at Nathan.

"Pull up, right here," Nathan motions toward the edge of the airstrip. Off of Brooke's 'what now' expression he explains, "I want you to hit the gas."

"What?" Brooke stares at Nathan, an eyebrow arched and her dimples just barely giving away her amusement.

"Just do it."

"Nathan..."

"Brooke."

With a shriek, Brooke presses down on the gas pedal but her shrieks turn to laughter as she shifts gears. As it picks up speed Brooke pushes the pedal down further. The speedometer hits sixty before she has to break to turn from one runway onto another. It's only moments before she's regained her speed again and she can feel the adrenaline pushing through her body. Everything else is forgotten. The last hour, the blowout at dinner. The last week. The last month.

Everything is long gone before the speedometer needle hits ninety. None of it matters anymore. All that matters is that Brooke's hand stays stead on the wheel and that she maintains control of the car. She could kill them both if her focus slipped even remotely from the runway. It was all about control. If she could control the car, right then, in that moment then she could control everything around her, even if it was only for a few minutes. She got to choose if they lived or died. As Brooke maneuvers the car from concrete strip to concrete strip she grips the wheel more tightly and somewhere in the back of her mind she can register that there's sweat trailing down her face and pouring down her back.

It's not until she down shifts and slows the car to a stop that she realizes she's been holding her breath for most of the time. When she turns to look at Nathan she's got tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. "I understand."

Nathan grabs her hand across the seat, "I thought maybe you might." Brooke's eyes lock onto Nathan's and she doesn't fully understand what has brought them to this. How so quickly one person could mean so much to her. It's disconcerting but at the same time is brings Brooke a huge amount of relief. She has friends and family who were more then sympathetic and willing to give her any sort of comfort she needed. She could sit and talk for hours and explain how she felt in great detail and they'd listen for as long as she needed them to. But Nathan was empathetic, he understood without a word that she didn't need him hovering over her but she needed someone not to comfort her. Someone to help her see that her life wasn't over, not yet anyway. It was just changed. She may be dying but she wasn't dead yet and there was no point in giving up on her entire life because in a few months she could be dead.

"Thank you." There are no more words needed, he understands what she's trying to express and for that Brooke's grateful because the adrenaline that had been pumping through her body while she directed a car going a hundred miles an hour is gone.

"So, you wanna drive?" Nathan offers Brooke his standard smirk.

Brooke leans her head back against the head wrap and laughs, "Absolutely not."

Nathan laughs, as he lifts up the arm rest between them "alright, slide across."

Brooke, glad to not have to stand because she's pretty sure her legs couldn't support her weight at this moment, slides across the smooth leather seats, right into Nathan. "You need to get out and drive, unless you have an invisible driver I don't know about hanging out in the backseat."

"I will," instead of making a move to get out of the car though Nathan wraps an arm around Brooke's shoulder pulling her body to rest against his. Brooke doesn't protest. There's a safety in Nathan's arms, and she's content to let them stay there, in the middle of an old air field, lost in their own world.

**A.N. No I did not forget about you my loving readers. I just temporarily lost my mind. Went home for a week. Went back to school for summer sessions. Changed majors. Anyway. It's an update, not a long one but um you got your Brathan. What more do you people want from me. Lol. I hope to have a new update soon!**


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